By Natalia Hidalgo Martínez

(EurActiv) — Spain’s Commissioner-designate for a Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition, Teresa Riberá, will be grilled by MEPs on Tuesday (12 November), and her views on telecoms market consolidation, in light of Telefonicá’s influence on Spanish politics, could be a key issue.

Many expect her to please her home country’s national champion, Telefonica. Spain does not have a digital policy; the charge goes; it has a Telefonica policy. And Telefonica’s interests are clear: as one of Europe’s three largest telecom companies, it will lead any consolidation.

How to fix Europe’s struggling telecom companies has become one of Europe’s most vexing policy tussles. Many struggle to make money and invest in upgrading the continent’s digital infrastructure. They blame market fragmentation and rigid competition laws. The EU counts 34 mobile operators – compared to just four in China and three in the United States. If confirmed, Ribera faces this and other hefty challenges.She will have to decide whether to soften antitrust rules to allow for the creation of European champions while enforcing a crackdown on Big Tech. In addition to her new job policing tech competition, she is tasked with completing Europe’s Green Deal, an area she knows fairly well as Spain’s ecological transition minister and as an international climate........

© Eurasia Review